Hmm. Started in Prehistory, but happily accepted all the classic LBB supplements.
Tried to move on to Megatraveller, but got the infamous 1st Edition which was so error riddled as to be unusable ... and, in pre-internet days, being here in Oz meant that it took months for errata to reach here and be widely distributed.
Hated - no, that's slightly too strong - greatly disliked the Task Resolution system in Megatraveller while agreeing that the one in CT needed formalisation. Just thought that the MT one was ... overly complex and, worse, didn't really make it easy to use (yes, I know this is not a universal opinion!)
Didn't mind the way that the history was going - until we got wind, late and patchily, of the Empress Wave and, worse, Virus. Put me in the "doesn't like Virus" camp :wink:
Thought TNE was an OK rule system, but, again, disliked the background history and though the whole Space Viking thingy was ... silly.
T4 - well, I didn't mind the game system, actually, even the much loathed half die. The thing that was inexcusable was the poor quality of the proof reading which made the game difficult to use.
MongTrav? Pretty good. Still suffers from some of the core problems Traveller has always suffered from (outdated technology, a tech level system that neither works nor makes much sense if you know anything about technology, a planet/system generation system that is badly flawed and unrealistic, a skills set that doesn't provide enough skills to represent real people and doesn't handle cross TL skills at all etc.), but the resolution system is improved (not that it couldn't be tweaked) greatly, and is possibly the best so far.
T5? Well, I have the CD, and occasionally view the private access forum, but think that the whole process is taking far too long. Some elements are really great, and expand or improve on Mongoose (and other) versions of Traveller, but others simply regurgitate slightly changed versions of what has been problematic all along.
Of the final two, I suspect that T5 might actually be better, system wise, but not by much ... and to make a final decision on that we'll have to wait until the final version is released. Not that I think it will be, not any time soon, anyway :wink:
Overall, I think Mongoose Traveller has the most going for it at the moment, though I still think it has issues that need to be corrected, but probably never will be for a whole variety of reasons, most of which I am certainly not privy to :wink:
As for me, well, 56 in May 10, which officially makes me a surly old curmudgeon 8)
Phil
Tried to move on to Megatraveller, but got the infamous 1st Edition which was so error riddled as to be unusable ... and, in pre-internet days, being here in Oz meant that it took months for errata to reach here and be widely distributed.
Hated - no, that's slightly too strong - greatly disliked the Task Resolution system in Megatraveller while agreeing that the one in CT needed formalisation. Just thought that the MT one was ... overly complex and, worse, didn't really make it easy to use (yes, I know this is not a universal opinion!)
Didn't mind the way that the history was going - until we got wind, late and patchily, of the Empress Wave and, worse, Virus. Put me in the "doesn't like Virus" camp :wink:
Thought TNE was an OK rule system, but, again, disliked the background history and though the whole Space Viking thingy was ... silly.
T4 - well, I didn't mind the game system, actually, even the much loathed half die. The thing that was inexcusable was the poor quality of the proof reading which made the game difficult to use.
MongTrav? Pretty good. Still suffers from some of the core problems Traveller has always suffered from (outdated technology, a tech level system that neither works nor makes much sense if you know anything about technology, a planet/system generation system that is badly flawed and unrealistic, a skills set that doesn't provide enough skills to represent real people and doesn't handle cross TL skills at all etc.), but the resolution system is improved (not that it couldn't be tweaked) greatly, and is possibly the best so far.
T5? Well, I have the CD, and occasionally view the private access forum, but think that the whole process is taking far too long. Some elements are really great, and expand or improve on Mongoose (and other) versions of Traveller, but others simply regurgitate slightly changed versions of what has been problematic all along.
Of the final two, I suspect that T5 might actually be better, system wise, but not by much ... and to make a final decision on that we'll have to wait until the final version is released. Not that I think it will be, not any time soon, anyway :wink:
Overall, I think Mongoose Traveller has the most going for it at the moment, though I still think it has issues that need to be corrected, but probably never will be for a whole variety of reasons, most of which I am certainly not privy to :wink:
As for me, well, 56 in May 10, which officially makes me a surly old curmudgeon 8)
Phil
